The Road to The Blackest Night I: Where Things Stand

Just as we recently summarized all the news being released on the internet about the Green Lantern movie,
we're taking a look at all the Green Lantern comic book news as fans
have been inundated with information lately about the road to this
summer's Blackest Night event.

- Eight Issues: As announced at the ComicsPRO
retailing summit in Memphis last month, the Blackest Night mini-series
by Green Lantern writer Geoff Johns will be a total of eight issues
beginning in July. These eight issues will follow a Free Comic Book Day
release on May 2nd of the Blackest Night #0 prologue issue.

- Tie-ins: As Johns and Dan DiDio have both told
Newsarama, the Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps titles will tell
part of the story of Blackest Night along with the mini-series.
Blackest Night editor Eddie Berganza told IGN
this week that "ideally we're giving you complete stories in each
title, but if you read them as a whole, you are getting a larger view
of this threat that is spreading death throughout the universe." DC has
not confirmed how many issues of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps
are involved in the event.

Berganza also announced the following Blackest Night tie-in issues:

Green Lantern #43: Just like Blackest Night #0, Green Lantern
#43 will serve as a prologue issue for the mini-series, coming out in
early July before Blackest Night #1. While Issue #43 is the debut issue
for >new Green Lantern penciler Doug Mahnke, Johns told Newsarama
the issue will also debut new "entities" representing the colored
energies of the emotional spectrum (similar to Parallax for fear and
Ion for willpower). "You'll see two new entities – one kind of revealed
in Green Lantern #43, and another full out in Green Lantern #43. But
the entities are these living creatures that are born out of this
power," Johns said.

Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1-3 - Written by Johns and
Green Lantern Corps writer Peter Tomasi, these three issues in July
will highlight the various colored Lantern Corps. As Johns told
Newsarama last month, basic information on the Lanterns of the
emotional spectrum will be in the next few issues of Green Lantern, but
the Tales of the Corps series will go into "a lot more detail on a lot of these Lanterns."

Blackest Night: Batman, Blackest Night: Superman, and Blackest Night: Titans
- These three-issue comics will tell up-close stories beginning in
August about how the characters in the DCU react to seeing their
deceased friends and/or family members rising from the dead to become
Black Lanterns. Another wave of tie-in minis will follow in November
and will include Blackest Night: Wonder Woman. While writers
for these comics have not been named, Berganza teased that they will
include Tomasi, James Robinson, Greg Rucka and J.T. Krul.

- Artists: Art by Reis and Doug Mahnke is featured in Blackest Night #0, the Free Comic Book Day preview issue.

At New York Comic Con, Reis promised Newsarama readers
that he will be drawing all eight issues of the Blackest Night
mini-series, plus a few other possible tie-in issues. Blackest Night
will be the last work he does on Green Lantern, although Reis said he's
planning another project with Johns after the event finishes. Oclair
Albert will provide inks for Reis with Alex Sinclair on colors for
Blackest Night.

As Reis moves off the Green Lantern title, Mahnke will take over as penciler
beginning with Green Lantern #43. Mahnke will continue as the regular
artist on Green Lantern during and after Blackest Night, along with
Johns, who told Newsarama he's staying on the title indefinitely. Christian Alamy will be the inker on Green Lantern with Randy Major and Nei Ruffino on colors.

As we found out last week from Mahnke,
the new Green Lantern artist shares his studio in Minnesota with
Patrick Gleason, the artist on Green Lantern Corps, who will continue
to pencil that series during Blackest Night. "If a bomb was dropped up
here on North Branch, Minn., that would wipe out the team," Mahnke
joked. Providing inks on Green Lantern Corps will be Rebecca Buchman,
with colors by Major and Ruffino.

- Black Lanterns: Fans got their first glimpse of some
Black Lanterns designed by artist Ethan Van Sciver as they hit the
internet this week. On DC's newSource blog,
the publisher released images of two characters who will apparently
rise from the dead to serve as Black Lanterns during Blackest Night. As
Van Sciver told Newsarama in October,
he worked with Johns and editors to "compile a list of specific DC
superheroes and supervillains who have assumed room temperature," and
was "assigning a new look to each of them." Artists Ivan Reis and Joe
Prado told Newsarama in February that they are also designing Black Lanterns for the storyline. (Spoiler:
The two teaser images of Black Lanterns released this week depict
Earth-2 Superman and Aquaman as zombie-looking Lanterns. Of course, E-2
Superman as a Black Lantern was spoiled awhile ago when Blackest Night action figure previews were released.)

Other Lanterns: Based on the idea that emotions have
energy that can be harnessed with power rings – with the Green Lanterns
controlling the central, green-colored energy of willpower – the Green
Lantern titles have been revealing the various colors of the emotional
spectrum and their ring-wearing corps for awhile now. To date, readers
of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps have seen the Red Lanterns,
who wield the power of hate; the Sinestro Corps members, who use the
energy of fear; the Violet Lanterns who use love; and the spiritually
driven Blue Lanterns of hope who support the Green Lanterns' energy of
willpower. Johns told Newsarama of the yet-unseen wielders of the
compassion-driven indigo energy: "I've been very careful with indigo
because they're not what everyone expects, and they act very
differently than what everyone expects. They will be introduced within
Blackest Night. And they're actually called the Indigo Tribe. You'll
see a little glimpse of them in Blackest Night #0, the Free Comic Book
Day comic we're doing, but a very little glimpse."

And beginning next week, Philip Tan will debut as artist on Green Lantern
for the four-issue Agent Orange story arc. The story will introduce the
Orange Lanterns, focusing on the leader Larfleeze. The stories in both
Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps will build toward this summer's
event over the next four months, Johns said, and "as the books get
closer to Blackest Night, there will be more threads zipping between
the books."